Hey guys. Thank you all for the awesome comments, the votes and the support. This is my gift to you...a dedication to all the loyal fans of Forbidden Lineage :) You know who you are ;) I hope this one doesn't suck too bad, but still, feedback is welcomed :D I know it's late, but I hope it keeps you going until the weekend :) Go on...read and enjoy...or not :P (PS* Mind the errors....i had no time to edit)
Nik:
Thinking about Medea brought a small smile to his lips at the oddest moments, but there was no way he was going to get any proper privacy from these guys. Dante and Yesinia had blatantly flaunted their pastime, the after scent of it in their minds infuriating them all through their link. There was little else to do but block them out, and since he was still partly linked with Caleb and Ulrica, he couldn’t see himself make contact anytime soon. They’d been all over town, even heading out further than they decided upon and now they were in pursuit of one mindless youngling who’d decided to make a run for it. They tracked his scent to the seaside, where they lost it completely. Seemed the kid could teleport.
“Bloody hell!” Ulrica growled. Caleb crouched in the soft white sand and rubbed his hands together slowly.
“Why would he run?” He frowned in thought.
“Maybe because he knows something he doesn’t want to share.” Ulrica turned, hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. “Why didn’t you go after him?” She asked Nik accusingly. The mid-afternoon sun peeped out from behind fluffy white clouds, making her look delicate, despite the leather getup she wore. Her short cropped caramel hair stayed stubbornly in place, heedless of the wind that ruffled her jacket.
“I’m done running around. He was probably just scared at the way you cornered him. With all the killing, I don’t think it’s uncalled for behavior from a young one.”
“You could be right.” Caleb picked up a sand washed piece of glass and lifted it to the sunlight. Holding it between thumb and forefinger, he squinted through the object and smiled.
“Quit playing Caleb. Where to next?” Ulrica inquired roughly. “We’ve had a mixed batch to deal with these last few hours and we have yet to get a proper answer.”
Some of the Crimson had no idea what they were talking about when they questioned them, and the others had either lied that they knew or knew denied it. They didn’t want to resort to making them submit unless it was absolutely necessary. He’d lost interest in the chase the moment it began because he knew for certain that it would lead nowhere. The tainted had nothing to do with this. He had no idea what Dante was trying to gain from making them do this, but he’d bet his right arm that he was hiding something big. He needed to find out what that was before they went into the meeting blindly. They couldn’t afford that at this point in time. He’d decided to leave them here and go at it by himself. He knew just how to find out what Dante was up to without getting caught, but he had to ask his father first.
“I have a few things to do on my own.” He told them, releasing the backpack on his shoulders and holding it out to Caleb.
“No, we are to stick together. We have a better chance at tracking if we are closing in from all sides.” She reminded him, knocking the bag from his hand.
“Like we did with this kid?” Nik waved his hand in the general direction of the disappearing youngling. “Actually, I think I’m done with this bull. I’ll see you guys at the meeting.”
Ulrica glared at him, but it was cut short when Dante forced his way into their minds, almost shouting his thoughts at the top of his lungs.
“There’s a live one. I found her myself.” He declared proudly. Their mind link broadened, enabling all of them to converse privately in there.
“Where is she?” Nik asked him.
“At the hospital. But she’s still out cold.”
“Same MO?” Ulrica asked.
“Same. Drained and thrown off a rooftop, but she landed in a laundry bin instead of the road. There were two sets of footsteps heading towards her, but I think they caught my scent and ran off. I couldn’t scent them though.”
“Did you chase them at least?” Caleb threw Nik a silent look as he questioned Dante.
“No, I thought finding living proof would be better. This way I ensured she lived, instead of one of them backtracking to finish her off. I called it in.”
“Good thinking.” Ulrica complimented. “Yesinia wasn’t with you?”
“No. Actually, she fell asleep earlier.” He cleared his throat. “I thought I’d have a look around by myself in the meantime and happened to run into that.”
“How convenient.” Nik muttered.
“What?” He could feel Dante’s hackles rise when Caleb and Ulrica shot him twin questioning glares.
“Nothing. Which hospital? We’ll meet you there.” He said instead.
Dante told them quickly, before adding, “She’s still out cold from the loss of blood and essence. Thankfully she has no other injuries either. She should wake up in a little while and then we can question her together. I’ll get Yesinia.”
“Yeah, you do that.” Caleb told him, his eyes still on Nik. “We’ll go freshen up before meeting with you. We all look like crap.” He laughed the last part and Dante chuckled, the invisible waves relaxing.
They ended the conversation and severed the links, each one quickly shielding their thoughts to keep a clear head.
“Right, I’m off then.” Nik waved and began to walk away from them when Caleb stopped him.
“You’re not coming with?” He frowned.
“I’ll meet you there. I already said that have things to do. I may as well get started.”
“Seriously Nik? The fact that the tainted could be causing this means nothing to you?”
Her voice cut through the crashing waves and carried further down the beach. Lucky for them, it was a quiet afternoon.
“I have no doubt that this is the job of an experienced Crimson, but I don’t believe it’s the tainted we are after.” He told her angrily. “I thought I made that clear when you insisted on chasing the kid.”
“You really think it’s someone else? Even after Dante specifying that he heard two of them approaching the woman?” Caleb asked looking up at them.
Nik shook his head. “Too easy. Those two tainted have been around for a while. They could have done something like this in all that time but they didn’t. This began, a few days ago. Doesn’t it make you wonder?”
“Wonder what, exactly?” Ulrica asked crossly.
“Why it happened now, after Kai escaped?” He replied in the same tone.
Ulrica rolled her eyes. “I thought we already agreed that it wasn’t him.”
“He’s a Forbidden. He falls in the same category as the tainted. The meeting is still on tomorrow, and when this comes out there will be pandemonium. All the Guardians will be baying for blood, and it wouldn’t matter that the innocent will be the ones paying for it.”
“The innocents are already paying for it!” Ulrica threw back in frustration.
“We’re being played like puppets, and we’re letting them pull the strings. We prowled the whole city, and nothing. Then Dante just ‘happens’ to stumble on them?” He argued. “You truly believe that?”
Breathing hard, she looked away before talking to him. “We still have a job to do. No matter whom or what it is that’s behind these attacks; our duty as Guardians is to make sure that peace remains between the species. We do all we can to close this before then. Even if it requires us going along with what news Dante brings us. It’s more than we gathered ourselves.”
He shook his head silently, rubbing the back of his neck.
Caleb:
The tension in the air was only amplified when Ulrica stalked up to Nik angrily.
“What’s gotten into you lately?” She stabbed at his chest and shouted when he continued to ignore her.
Nik grabbed her wrist and twisted her away from him, locking her with his arm while she struggled.
“What’s gotten into you?” He countered. Her chest heaved and Caleb tensed. Nik was the most level headed amongst them. He’d never hurt Ulrica, but then again he’d never seen him this angry before. His gray eyes had turned stormy, and his fangs were pushing out against his lips, his body tense and trembling.
“There was a time your hunter skill went without a challenge. Where is that today? Huh?” Nik thundered. “You’re the best out there. That’s what you were chosen for. Your talent cannot be matched.” He sighed dejectedly, retracting his teeth. “I’m wrong. I guess it can. Or you would have smelt the red herring before it was tossed to us. You got lazy, Ulrica. You got complacent. You haven’t got it anymore.”
“You don’t mean that. You’re just pissed off right now.” She muttered unconvincingly.
He let her go and focused the swirling gray depths on them both. “Dante isn’t better than us. We have an equal right to decide as Guardians. You two have long forgotten what it meant to oversee the young. Since he began using Kai for clean-up, we’ve done nothing but sit back and relax. I don’t blame Valentina for leaving. She saw what we are blind to, and if this goes on for much longer, you two will be left to deal with the entire race by yourself. Because those two have no idea what humanity is.” He looked like he was about to say more, but thought the better of it and turned to walk away again.
Caleb grabbed his arm. “Nik, is there something we need to know?”
He shrugged off his hand. “No.”
“You’re not being honest with us right now. I may come across as someone who doesn’t give a smack about things, but I do. I see and hear as clearly as you do, yet I chose to be oblivious to it. Not this time. I want to know.”
“No.” Nik said again, this time more firmly.
Caleb squared his shoulders and faced Nik head on. “I avoid using my talent to seek answers from anyone, so I will ask you to please trust me. Tell me what it is you sense?”
Nik’s muscles locked together when fast as lightening, he raised one hand and grabbed him by the throat. “Are you threatening me?”
“I’m not.” He whispered through his teeth. “All I’m saying is that I have a heart. And it feels uncertain where Dante is concerned. It has been for a while now.”
Caleb had an unusual talent. One that could torture you to no end until you broke. He could cause hallucinations that were so bad that you could actually die from the very effects of it. He never used it on the younglings anymore, not after he saw one drown in his own blood because of it, but Guardians were a lot tougher, as he found when he’d practiced with them. Kai had suffered through it a few times in the past because Dante wanted to see the result on him, until the day he tossed him with his mind. He knew that Kai had always been a good kid and he felt terrible for ever having hurt him, but he’d realized a long time ago that Dante was a fiend who cared nothing about others unless he could use them for his own purposes. That was why he’d pulled away from Kai when Val left, keeping him distant. He didn’t know what the others would have to say about it. Nik was openly affectionate to him but personally, he’d been too afraid of judgment. He was sure that Ulrica felt the same though he hadn’t spoken to her about it before, and Nik was right in every way. Kai was a Forbidden, and would most likely be found guilty of this as well. He was secretly happy that he’d made it out, and he was hoping that he’d found the mate he was destined for. At least that way he’d be free to live, and he won’t ever have to be forced into submission again.
He threw the thought at Nik, who looked surprised before he nodded and let him go. He still hesitated though, staring cautiously at Ulrica.
“Trust.” Nik told them almost inaudibly. “One simple word with a heavy consequence.” He exhaled shakily. “I’ve known you forever, but I can’t. Sorry. Not yet anyway.”
“Do you know something we don’t?” She came up to his face again and searched his eyes.
“I know that we are going to look like total idiots at the meeting because we can’t keep our own under control.” He said quietly. “And I know that after everything we tried, we’ll still be taking the back seat when Dante takes charge. He’s already claiming to have ‘saved’ this victim. And he has no scent from the runaways to back him up. No scent equals the tainted two. On my life, the woman will tell us the same.”
“You seem to be harboring some ill will towards your fellow Guardian. Something happen between you two?” She asked frowning at his attitude. She seemed to have calmed a little.
He shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets. The warm salty sea breeze whipped his hair all around his face but he ignored it. Caleb poked through his mind, and he let him, because all he was thinking at that moment was strangling Yesinia and kicking Dante where it hurt the most.
Caleb chuckled and Ulrica’s eyes narrowed. “Do you fancy Yesinia?” She asked out of the blue.
Caleb snorted holding back his laughter when Nik actually gagged. He sputtered a few times in disbelief before grabbing his hair with both hands.
“This is not a joke.” She muttered angrily.
“Not a joke? Those two make me sick to the stomach.” Nik spat indignantly.
“What is really going on between you and Dante? I saw the looks he’s been giving you when he thinks you aren’t watching. You know something…” She muttered.
“What I know, is that we are all Guardians. I will not accept that they are better than us because they think so. They’re good for each other and nothing else! We’re the ones who always get our hands dirty trying to keep the peace. Those two?” He inhaled angrily and paused before speaking again. “When was the last time they did anything that didn’t involve foreplay? He makes a suggestion, we dash towards it. And Yesinia is so empty headed she echoes her own thoughts! I’m sick of it.”
“That’s not everything, is it?” She raised a questioning brow at him, completely unfazed by his outburst.
“It isn’t. But I am not discussing it with you.” He looked between her and Caleb, who was standing by quietly observing them all this time. “What I will say though, is that they’ll pull their own weight as equals or so help me, I will turn my back on this bullshit the way Valentina did.” Nik said; his voice dripping venom.
“Relax Nik. You’ll do no such thing.” Ulrica told him calmly.
“I’m with Nik.” Caleb dusted the sand off his pants and shoes. “We’ve sat by and let Dante run things for too long. It feels as if we’re working for him, instead of with. It’s ticking me off as well. That; and the fact that I also find this new discovery of his a little far-fetched.”
Ulrica was rubbing her arms slowly, looking upset as she warred with herself.
She raised her head a few moments later, her eyes flickering between them. Her face was strained, her mouth tense.
“Let’s go with this idea of Dante’s. Please Nik, and if he proves you right by saying it’s the tainted, then I’ll back you up with any decision you make going forward.”
She held out her hand for him to shake. Shrugging it aside, he caught both him and Ulrica by their forearms and faded off the beach.
Damien:
The raven haired ex-Guardian paled right before their eyes as she took them in, snapping her jaw shut, clearly flustered. He’d never seen a Crimson faint before and she looked as if she might, the thought amusing him further when he caught Locke muttering about drama queens. They were spread out all around the living room, the afternoon sun filtering through the windows, bringing warmth to their little reunion. He recalled Nik telling him about her very daring request to leave the Guardianship two centuries ago. She’d saved Kai that day, and he’d do well to remember to thank her for it later.
She pasted on a bright smile as she was introduced to each of them, but it rapidly reached her eyes when she saw Kai. Her greeting to his son further solidified his respect for the woman when she stroked back his hair affectionately, her face filled with the pride and love only a mother could hold for her offspring. Kai’s face softened in response to her softly whispered, “Nice haircut, figlio.”
He winked, but reached instinctively for Sofia. As soon as Valentina set her eyes upon her, she quickly realized the reason she had come and her smile wavered. She kissed her cheek, smoothing her hand over her hair, which Sofia accepted as a familiar gesture with a tight smile of her own.
“Okay, to bring you up to speed on what happened, a little quiet is required.” Medea clapped and everyone immediately went silent. Placing her fingertips onto Valentina’s temples, they watched as Medea relayed everything to her through a memory spell. The way Valentina reacted to the images gave him new insight to her resilience. Her breath caught, eyelashes flickered and her lips trembled, but she gathered herself and took it all in with a pinch of salt. When they were done, Valentina nodded her acceptance and faced them once again.
“Kai trusts you all enough to have you around Sofia, so I will do the same.” Her voice was tense, but she managed to still keep her features relaxed.
“Silas saw a patient today, a young woman who survived a threat to her life by literally falling at the feet of a Guardian. She claims she saw her attackers.” Her eyes closed briefly and fluttered open. She looked nervous.
“Well?” Locke pushed when she failed to continue.
Valentina swallowed and looked apologetically from Kai to Sofia. “She describes your parents, Sofia.” The words were barely audible, but they heard her perfectly.
Sofia sagged against Kai with a shocked sob. His arms tightened around her and held her close. Over her head, he narrowed his eyes at Valentina.
“Who was the Guardian that found her?”
“Dante.”
Kai cursed. “And you believe he would allow her to talk if he didn’t alter her mind first?”
“That’s what Silas said too.” She sighed resignedly.
“What if he made Silas submit as well?” Damien asked her.
“He almost did.”
He looked surprised when she made it clear that he wasn’t.
“And yet you came here, knowing it would link you to Kai again if he fit the pieces together?” Locke growled anyway.
“My Silas is not recognized as Crimson. I keep him human with the gift Medea gave to me.” She smiled shakily at her friend. “He did not assume that Silas would be able to see through him, or overhear his exchange for that matter.”
“See through him? Explain yourself.” Kai requested; his voice steely.
“My husband has a talent that allows him to. He works at the hospital as a neurosurgeon, but he does not require any aids to detect ailments. Silas can see right through the body, like a walking X-ray, litreally into every crevice of your being, including the brain." She waited for that to sink in. "He saw Dante enter her room and followed at a distance. Dante made her submit, and he heard her repeat after him just before telling her to go back to sleep. Silas walked in on them with the pretense of checking up on his patient. Dante feigned concern for the woman, and Silas played along. He told Silas that he’s family, and that the rest of their siblings are coming by to see the how she’s doing. That’s the rest of the Guardians. If the others believe its Leo or Maier, there’s going to be trouble.”
“Why blame my parents for something like that?” Sofia asked worriedly. "They haven't been around for ages."
“Simple.” Medea looked light a light bulb just went on in her head. “Maybe he has no clue who is behind this, but he’s going to try and use it as a lure for Sofia? With the meeting on tomorrow night, there’s no time to waste. It’s brilliant, really.” She shook her head in astonishment.
“If the others believe him, they’ll be most wanted. Nowhere to hide from there on end, Sofia comes out to help her parents…He gets her, he gets Kai.” Locke finished. “You’re right. It is brilliant.” He added through clenched teeth.
“He’s crazy if he thinks this will work. The others aren’t stupid; they’ll call him out on his lie. And if through some miracle it does work…He’s a dead man walking.” Kai growled, his eyes flashing darkly with the unspoken threat.
“Easy, Kai. Nik hasn’t made contact, so he either hasn’t gone yet, or he’s there right about now.” Damien told them. “He’ll be able to tell us what’s going down as soon as it happens.”
“I think we should go along with his plan and see where he’s going with it. We already have enough proof that Kai’s not a danger.” He turned to Kai and squinched an eye. “Not unless you’re pushed, but that’s what he’ll make all forbidden out to be, and the others will be warring with each other before we know it.” Locke supplied.
“My sisters have seen this happen. You may be on to something Locke. We have everything we need to dispel his theory here.” Medea said.
“…Except Leo and Maier.” Valentina added quietly. “They will not be at the meeting to defend themselves. It will be Dante’s word against the woman’s, and we cannot disclose the fact that you all have been keeping something this important from your fellow council members without it looking suspicious.”
“And talking about the meeting,” Kai reminded them, “You all have to get back to your respective people and come up with plausible excuses for your sudden disappearance.”
That gave them pause. None of them had even bothered to call in or let their friends and families know where they’d rushed off to and that too, right before the day that could determine the future of all races.
Kai:
They left the others in the living room and went outside. Sofia twined her fingers with his nervously, and the look on her face broke his heart. He couldn't help but pull her to his chest and hold on tightly. If he could end this before it began, he would, She'd have her parents, she'd have her life, and he'd have done the best he could to protect her. One simple solution came to mind making Sofia turn up to face him sharply. 'You will not!' Her eyes flashed as she yelled at him mentally, tears already forming in her eyes.
"It's the only way, love. The only way we can end this without any more lives being lost." His mouth came down on hers, cutting off her argument. 'I love you. It hurts me to see you in pain. No matter what, I can't lose you.' His mind whispered to hers. Sniffling, she curled her fingers in his hair and pulled him closer. Kissing him back with everything in her, she replied, 'Stupid man, I love you too.'